What to see at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo now

First, what is not here

Two things that every older guidebook puts at the top of the list have gone. Tutankhamun's gold mask and the rest of his tomb's treasures are now at the Grand Egyptian Museum near the Giza pyramids, which opened in full on 1 November 2025. On 3 April 2021 the royal mummies left for the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization in Fustat. Some tour descriptions on booking sites still promise both at Tahrir, so do not plan your visit around them. What remains is still one of the great collections of ancient Egyptian art, and the ministry lists its present highlights on its own page, which this guide follows below.

How the building is laid out

The museum has two main floors. By Wikipedia's account, large stone works such as statues, reliefs and architectural pieces fill the ground floor, arranged roughly in time order. Smaller works, including papyri, coins, textiles, coffins and jewellery, are upstairs. The galleries open off a long, high central hall, and the side rooms are lit by tall windows. The National reported in November 2025 that the ground floor had been rearranged after Tutankhamun's pieces left, that shutters had been fitted to the long windows to protect the objects from sunlight, and that fuller labels had gone up on the cases. Room numbers in older guidebooks may no longer match, so use the highlights below as a checklist rather than a map.

Look at the building on the way in

Before you go inside, stop by the pool in front of the entrance. The building's salmon-pink front was designed by Marcel Dourgnon and finished in 1902, and a Latin inscription above the great arched doorway names Abbas Hilmi, the khedive who laid its foundation stone in 1897. Stone sphinxes and other large pieces stand in the forecourt and the pool. Inside, look up as you cross the central hall: the museum was among the first buildings in the Middle East to use reinforced concrete, by Al-Monitor's account, and its high spaces were planned for the large statues that still line it.

The Narmer Palette

If you see one object, make it this. The Narmer Palette is a shield-shaped slab of siltstone about 64 cm tall, carved in low relief on both faces. The British archaeologists James Quibell and Frederick Green found it during the 1897–98 season at Hierakonpolis, in southern Egypt. One side shows King Narmer wearing the White Crown of Upper Egypt as he strikes an enemy; the other shows him in the Red Crown of Lower Egypt. Many scholars read it as a picture of the two lands under one king, among the earliest of its kind. Others see it as a record of one year's events, or as a statement of the king's power over chaos. Look at how much of later Egyptian art is already here: the king drawn larger than everyone else, the falcon of Horus, and the scenes stacked in bands. The ministry lists the palette among the museum's masterpieces.

The kings of the Giza pyramids

The ministry names statues of Khufu, Khafre and Menkaure, the three kings behind the pyramids at Giza, among the museum's highlights. That is a link worth making if you have already stood beneath the pyramids, because here you meet the men who built them. The ministry does not list which statues, and some Old Kingdom pieces have gone to the Grand Egyptian Museum, so ask your guide, or the attendants, what is on display now. One famous piece to look for is a tiny seated ivory figure of Khufu, photographed in its case here in 2023. For the builder of the largest pyramid, it is a strangely small memorial.

The treasures of Psusennes I

This is the collection that now carries the upper floor. Psusennes I was the third king of the 21st Dynasty, ruling in the 11th century BC from Tanis, a city in the eastern Nile Delta that served as Egypt's capital under the 21st and 22nd Dynasties. In February 1940 the French Egyptologist Pierre Montet found his tomb intact. The king had been laid in an inner coffin of silver inlaid with gold, at a time when silver was rarer in Egypt than gold. His mask is gold, with lapis lazuli and inlaid glass for the eyes and brows. The same royal tombs gave up masks for the kings Amenemope and Shoshenq II and a great deal of gold and silver jewellery. The National reported in November 2025 that these pieces had taken over from Tutankhamun's, and Al-Monitor named them among the museum's showpieces in August 2026. The mask was photographed in its case here on 6 November 2025, after GEM opened.

The burial of Yuya and Thuya

Yuya and Thuya were not royal, but their daughter Tiye married Amenhotep III and became one of the best-known queens of the 18th Dynasty. Their tomb in the Valley of the Kings, now numbered KV46, was found on 5 February 1905 by James Quibell, working for the American collector Theodore Davis. Robbers had been in during antiquity, yet a great deal survived: nested coffins, gilded masks, canopic chests, chairs and beds, and a chariot in nearly perfect condition. Wikipedia records that the collection went on display on the upper floor in 2018, and Al-Monitor reported objects from the tomb on display in August 2026. Wikipedia's page on the Grand Egyptian Museum also lists the Yuya and Thuya collection among pieces shown there, so some items may have moved. If one piece matters to you, ask before you go.

Coffins, papyri and the quieter rooms

Away from the headline pieces, the upper floor is full of painted wooden coffins, papyri, amulets and the small objects of everyday life. The papyri are mostly fragments, in ancient Egyptian, Greek, Latin and Arabic, and the coins come from Egypt, Greece, Rome and the Islamic world. Down in the long galleries you will also pass rows of stone sarcophagi and the anthropoid coffin lids of priests and courtiers. These rooms are where the museum still feels like the place its second director, Gaston Maspero, described: a building in which every space is used, like the inside of a tomb or temple. Give yourself time to wander here rather than rushing between highlights.

In the garden: Mariette and the Egyptologists

Before you leave, walk round to the garden beside the building. Auguste Mariette, the French archaeologist who founded Egypt's antiquities service and its first national collection, died in Cairo in 1881. When the collection moved here in 1902 his tomb came too, in keeping with his wish to lie among the objects he had gathered. Around his monument stand busts of Egyptologists from many countries, among them Champollion, Lepsius and Maspero, and the Egyptian scholars Ahmed Kamal, Selim Hassan and Labib Habachi. It is a quiet spot, and one of the few places in Cairo that tells the story of the people who studied ancient Egypt rather than the pharaohs themselves.

A route for two to three hours

There is no single right order, but this one avoids doubling back. It works whether you go alone or with a guide.

• Start on the ground floor and find the Narmer Palette early, while you are fresh.
• Walk on through the large stone sculpture, looking out for the Old Kingdom kings.
• Climb to the upper floor for the gold and silver of Psusennes I and the burial of Yuya and Thuya.
• Slow down among the coffins and papyri in the side rooms.
• Leave fifteen minutes for Mariette's tomb and the busts in the garden on your way out.

Temporary exhibitions

The museum has been using its space for changing shows since the big moves. Al-Monitor reported an international art exhibition called From Green Papyrus to Eternal Art, which opened in December 2025, and an earlier show on the scents and perfume-making of ancient Egypt. Exhibitions come and go, so check the ministry's page or ask at the entrance to see what is on during your visit.